Having stepped in at the last minute to direct an episode of The Mandalorian as a favor to longtime close friend Jon Favreau, Robert Rodriguez ended up playing a much bigger part in Star Wars‘ Disney Plus expansion then he could have possibly ever imagined.
As well as directing the action-packed and widely acclaimed Season 2 episode “The Tragedy,” he boarded The Book of Boba Fett as an executive producer alongside the Lucasfilm dream team of Favreau and Dave Filoni. He’ll also be stepping behind the camera for at least a couple of episodes.
His recent association with Disney had fans hoping that the Mouse House may even get around to greenlighting either a feature film or episodic continuation of his cult favorite Alita: Battle Angel, something the filmmaker was more than on board with. However, Rodriguez and his Troublemaker Studios have now signed a first-look deal with HBO and HBO Max.
As per the agreement, the company will develop original shows for the two platforms, so it shouldn’t affect his Star Wars work or Netflix’s plans for a We Can Be Heroes franchise. That being said, it could limit his time significantly, given the sheer pace at which Rodriguez is known to work. Luckily, his son Racer has been appointed as the lead development executive under the terms of the contract to share the burden.
In a statement, Rodriguez said he was keen to dive into “the wealth of iconic IP” available at WarnerMedia, so it sounds as though he’s looking to adapt some well-known properties as well as original concepts. Once the 53 year-old wraps up The Book of Boba Fett, he’s yet to settle on his next directorial effort. In the meantime, he does have John Malkovich’s experimental century-in-the-making sci-fi 100 Years coming to whatever the dominant platform is on Nov. 18, 2115.